State Data Show Strengths And Weaknesses Of Oconee County Schools

Oconee County School administrators have gone out of their way to make sure the Board of Education, parents and the general public know how highly ranked Oconee County Schools are based on the state’s Milestones assessments, released at the end of the summer.

Anisa Sullivan Jimenez, director of Communications for Oconee County Schools, sent out a news release on July 29 stating that “Oconee County Schools’ Milestones, End of Grade, and End of Course assessment results have placed OCS as the #1 school system in the state of Georgia.”

Jimenez congratulated the Board of Education for the ranking at a meeting later that day, and School System Chief Operating Officer Claire Buck gave a detailed report to the Board a week later.

Buck told the Board that “Oconee County Schools overall was ranked the number one school system in the state of Georgia.”

School Superintendent Jason Branch got into the act at the School Board meeting on Sept. 9, when he told the Board that Oconee County Schools were rated as the number 1 county school system in the state.

The entrance to the school system Central Office, 34 School Street in Watkinsville, through which Board members and the public pass to get to the Central Office Meeting room, where the Board holds its regular meeting, has a sign proclaiming the system is Number 1 in the state of Georgia.

The rating is a fact, as SchoolDigger.com gave Oconee County the top ranking of school districts in the state.

The focus on the rating by SchoolDigger.com, however, overshadows real achievements by Oconee County Schools, which improved in 22 of 29 comparisons with Milestone data of a year ago, and glosses over some areas where Oconee County Schools underperform other elite school districts.

For more on this story, with detailed analysis of the Milestones data, please go to Oconee County Observations.